Your Bold Career Move: Reinventing Yourself in Midlife

Midlife has a way of making a career that used to fit feel like a costume you can't wait to take off. In this episode, Kimberly gets into why the restlessness so many women feel at this stage isn't a career problem. It's an identity problem. And what it actually takes to move.

Because it's not about the resume. It's about who you've been performing for.

What You'll Learn in This Episode:

• Why the identity you built around your career is the real thing keeping you stuck
• The permission problem and why waiting for the right moment is just fear with a calendar
• Why reinvention isn't starting over. It's starting from everything you already know
• The blockers that actually stop women from making a move and none of them are your resume
• One honest question to ask yourself this week before you make any plan at all

Action Step:

This week, ask yourself one honest question: if you weren't afraid of what anyone thought, including yourself, what would you try? Write it down. Don't qualify it. Then find one small thing you can do this week to move toward it. One conversation. One search. One email. That's it.

It doesn't have to be big.

It just has to be yours.

Craving more? Get the full episode notes here: https://kimberlyriggins.com/your-bold-career-move-reinventing-yourself-in-midlife/

Take the Rebel Resilience Quiz: https://kimberlyriggins.com/the-rebel-resilience-audit/

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Sunday nights have a feeling. You know the one. You have a job that pays the bills, maybe it even looks impressive on paper. But somewhere in the last few years, you started dreading Sunday nights. You started going through the motions. You started wondering if this is really all there is. The thing you built your whole adult life doing. The thing you thought you wanted. And now you're standing in the middle of midlife looking around thinking, hmm, is it too late to want something different? Well, I'm here to tell you it's not. But I want to talk about something nobody says out loud when this thought shows up. Most women at this stage don't actually have a career problem. They have an identity problem. They've been running someone else's race for way too long, and they forget they have legs of their own. That's what we're getting into today. This is not a five-step plan. This is not a passion pivot pep talk. This is a real conversation about reinventing yourself in midlife. What it actually takes, why it's scary as hell, and why that fear is not a sign to stop. Welcome to the Love You Naked Ass Podcast, the Midlife Rebellion Edition. I'm your host, Kimberly Riggins, health and life coach, holistic nutritionist, and your go-to bullshit detector for all things midlife. If you've ever rolled your eyes at the phrase aging gracefully, you're my kind of rebel. Because midlife isn't about slowing down, it's about showing up, speaking up, and maybe flipping a few tables along the way. So grab your coffee or your cocktail. I'm not here to judge. It's time we raise some hell, laugh a little, and love our naked asses again. Let's do this. Okay, Rebels, let's jump right in. Why midlife career reinventions feel so damn hard, and why it has nothing to do with your resume. So here's what nobody tells you when the restlessness hits. It's not really about the job. It's about the identity you built around your job. For some of you, you may have spent 30 years proving yourself, building credibility, climbing, staying, grinding, showing up. And at some point, the career became shorthand for who you are. I'm a nurse, I'm a teacher, I'm in finance. The title became the answer to the question, who are you? So when you start questioning the career, you're not just questioning a job, you're questioning yourself. And that's terrifying in a way that updating a LinkedIn profile cannot fix. Add that to the fact that you're doing this during perimenopause or menopause, when, let's be honest, brain fog is real, your confidence usually takes a major hit, and every decision feels harder to trust. And you've got a recipe for staying stuck. Not because you don't want to change, because the stakes feel impossibly high. What if I fail? What if I'm too old? What if I give this up and regret it? What if nobody takes me seriously? Those questions aren't weakness. They're just your nervous system doing its job. But they're not facts, and we're gonna talk about what to do with them. So let's talk about the permission problem. Because with all the women that I've worked with in my lifetime, one thing sticks out that I've noticed. The number one thing holding most of them back isn't money. It's not even time or skill. It's all about permission. They're waiting for someone to tell them it's okay to validate the pivot before they can make it or to promise them that it'll work out before they risk it. I did this myself. I spent years in roles that looked successful and felt hollow. I kept waiting for the right time, the right sign, the right financial cushion, the right moment where it all felt safe enough to move. But that moment never came. And to be clear, I didn't burn my life down overnight. I didn't quit my job and magically float into a dream life. I just decided. I started building something new while still working my full-time job. And I created an exit plan while I tested, learned, failed, adjusted, and kept going. And I'm still doing it today. Because safe and change don't really coexist. And at some point, you stop waiting to feel ready and you start deciding what matters enough to build it anyway. What finally moved me wasn't permission from anyone else, it was getting honest about what I would regret more risking it or staying. My parents worked their whole lives waiting for retirement to finally enjoy themselves, and they never made it. Both gone to cancer before they ever got to exhale. Now I'm not telling you that to scare you, but that changed the way I saw things. I'm telling you this because it's the reason I stopped waiting for permission. The rebel in you already know is what she wants. So she doesn't need another sign. She just needs to stop asking for a hall pass. Reinvention is not about starting over. It's about starting where you are, right in this moment. So this is where I need you to push back on the whole starting over narrative because it's complete bullshit. You're not starting over. You're starting from a completely different place than you were at 25. You have decades of experience. You know how to manage people, handle hard conversations, navigate failure, and keep going anyway. You know what you're good at, you know what drains you, you know what you want, you know what you'll put up with and what you won't anymore. That's not starting over. That's starting with a ridiculous amount of information most 25-year-olds don't actually have. The reinvention isn't about erasing what came before. It's about being honest about what came before. What served you, what you outgrew, what you stayed in too long out of obligation or fear. You don't have to blow up your entire life to make a meaningful change. Sometimes reinvention looks like a complete 180, but for most it doesn't. Sometimes it looks like a pivot inside the same industry, or sometimes it looks like just taking a step back from something that was never really yours to begin with. The question isn't how far you go, it's whether the direction is finally honest. Before we get into the real blockers, I want to pause here for a second. Because a lot of what I'm describing, the stuckness, the low-grade feeling that something is off, the exhaustion that makes every decision feel harder, that's not just an identity problem. That's your nervous system giving you signs. And if you've been wondering why your nervous system is actually breaking down, I build a free quiz just for you. It's called the Rebel Resilience Audit. Takes about five minutes, it's completely free, and it tells you exactly which pattern you're stuck in and what to focus on first. I'll be sure to put the link in the show notes below. So let's talk about what actually gets in the way. Those real blockers, not the surface ones. Money. Yes, finances matter. But most women at this stage have more options than they've been giving themselves credit for. The fear of financial instability is real. The assumption that change requires immediately walking away from income is often not true. You can build before you leap, and you can create that longer runway. You can test something before you burn the boat. What other people will think. Now this one sneaks up on you. We don't say it out loud, but it's there. What will my husband say? My kids, my parents, my colleagues who watch me build this career for 20 years. Here's the truth. The people you love will adjust, and the people you who don't will reveal themselves. It's that simple. Neither of those should be your deciding vote. The imposter spiral. Who am I to do this? I'm not qualified. I don't know enough. Someone else is already doing it better. Listen, this is your inner critic talking, and I'm telling you right now, she is an asshole. She lies. Competence follows commitment. You don't have to be ready. You just have to be willing. Perfectionism wearing the mask of preparation. Yep, been here, done that. More research, more planning, one more course, one more credential, one more year. That is not preparation. That's avoidance with a productivity costume on. At some point, you have to move before it's perfect, because it's never going to be perfect. So, how do we actually start? Let's talk about this practical piece. I'm not going to give you a 10 steps. I'm not going to give you a 90-day plan. I just want you to think about things that actually matter. Number one, let's get honest about what you want before you get strategic. So before you update anything or enroll in anything, let's get clear on what you actually want. Not what sounds good, not what seems realistic, what you actually want. Write it down. Say it out loud. See how it feels in your body. Number two, identify what you're carrying that isn't yours. A lot of midlife career decisions are made around obligations, expectations, and identities we inherited rather than chose. What are you doing because it was expected of you? What did you build for approval that you don't actually love? Number three, start a conversation before you make a move. Yes, I'm asking you to talk to people doing what you're curious about first. Not to gather more information, to see how it feels to say it out loud, to get out of your head and into the world. Give yourself a small experiment, not a massive commitment. So, can you freelance one project? Can you shadow someone for the day? Maybe start the thing on the side before you walk away from the stability. Big reinventions are usually made up of a hundred small tests. You don't have to decide everything today. Number five, stop saying it's too late. It's not too late. You're asking the wrong question. The question is, how much time do I want to spend not doing the thing I actually want to do? That reframe is the one that actually moves women. Alright, let's talk about your action step for this week. One question, one answer, and one move. So this week I want you to ask yourself one honest question. If I wasn't afraid of what anyone thought, including myself, what would I try? Write it down. Don't qualify it. Don't immediately list all the reasons it's impractical. Just write down the honest answer. Then find one small thing you can do this week to move towards it. Maybe that's one conversation, one search, one email, or one phone call. Not the whole plan. Just the one thing that proves you're willing to take yourself seriously. That's the move. So let me leave you with this. Reinvention in midlife is not about escaping your life. It's about finally building one that fits. You spent years taking care of other people's needs, other people's timelines, and other people's comforts. You are allowed to want more. And you are definitely allowed to change direction. You are allowed to be a completely different version of yourself by 60 than you were at 40. That is growth, not instability. You are not too old to start. You are just old enough to finally stop playing it safe. All right, next week, we're going to talk about something that does not get nearly enough airtime in the midlife conversation, your gut. Specifically, I want to talk about what's happening in your digestion because it's directly affecting your hormones, your mood, your weight, and your energy. So if you've been dealing with bloating, irregularity, or just feeling off in ways you can't quite name, this one's for you. Make sure you're subscribed so you don't miss it. I'll talk to you next week. And that's a wrap for this week's episode of the Love Your Naked Ass Podcast, the Midlife Rebellion Edition. If you're loving the show, be sure to smash that subscribe button, drop a rating, or leave a review. Because we're not here to tweak the old narrative. We're here to torch it, rewrite it, and make damn sure every woman knows midlife is her fun. Don't forget to join me on Substack at Rebel Midlife, where we get raw, real, and a little rebellious about what it means to thrive in this chapter. I'm Kimberly Riggins, signing off with this reminder Midlife isn't a crisis. It's your comeback story. Catch you next time, Rebel.